Monday, 30 July 2012

Heaven 2

St Matthew’s Church, Oxford, 15th July 2012.

Two weeks ago at the 10.30 service at St Matthew’s I
preached a sermon on heaven.I have
since come to think that sermon was mistaken or at least inadequate.I have come to this conclusion because of
feed-back from people who heard the sermon and also from discussions with
people about heaven over the last couple of weeks.

In my previous sermon I sought to answer three questions
about heaven: ‘Does it exist?’, ‘What is it like?’ and, ‘Are we going there?’I
spent most time on the second question, ‘What is it like?’I am
not now sure these are the right questions to ask about heaven.I am somewhat chastened by a parable Charlie
Bond told us last Sunday at the 10.30 service.This parable goes something like this.

A traveller meets an angel carrying a bunch of keys and a
bucket of water.The traveller asks the
angel what he is going to do with the keys and the water.The angel tells the traveller that, with the
keys he is going to lock the doors of heaven, and with the bucket of water he
will douse the fires of hell.‘But why?
‘ asks the traveller.The angel replies,
‘Well then we will really see who loves God’.

And this parable is echoed in the collect for today:I’ll read it again.

‘O God who has prepared for those who love you such good
things as pass our understanding: pour into our hearts such love toward you
that we, loving you above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed
all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord.’

In other words we cannot have a complete answer to my second
question two weeks ago, ‘What is heaven like?’ because it ‘passes our
understanding’.But I don’t think this
means we cannot understand what heave is like at all, just that it is much
bigger and better than we can understand.

Moreover this collect – echoing the parable – also makes it
clear that our primary desire should not be to understand what heaven is, or is
going to be, like but to love God ‘above all things’ even heaven –or rather especially heaven.And that we should pray for this love rather
than any understanding of heaven.

My answer to the question, ‘What is heaven like?’ a couple
of weeks ago – perhaps for the best of motives– was ‘we cannot be sure’.I thought we couldn’t be sure because at the
time I thought there wasn’t much in the Bible about heaven but now I think I
was wrong: there is a lot in the Bible about heaven.Jesus talks about himself as coming from
heaven – referring to himself as the Son of Man – as in visions from the book
of Daniel - and proceeds to tell us many stories of heaven: they are called
parables.Jesus begins many of these parables with the
words ‘the kingdom of heaven is like this’.

Now you might object at this point that, when Jesus talks
about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God (as he calls it in Mark’s and
Luke’s gospels), he is not primarily talking about somewhere we go to after our
death but God’s reign, his sovereignty here on earth.But to this I would say, one of the main
things we do know about heaven – and I did say this two weeks ago - is that it is
a place and time where God is and reigns.So I am certain that we can learn more about heaven from looking at what
Jesus says about the kingdom of heaven.

So what can we learn of heaven from looking at Jesus’
parables of the kingdom.Well lots but
perhaps the first thing to say is that when Jesus talks about the kingdom of
heaven he suggests that it’s both here now and yet to come.This implies that, at least to some extent,
heaven can be grasped or at least glimpsed here and now.This seems to me an important aspect of
heaven: it transcends time and space.This
was again something I touched on in my previous sermon.I realise that some people feel that here
and now their lives are more like hell than heaven, and to talk about grasping
or glimpsing heaven here and now takes away some of the hope of a better future,
but I don’t think we can get away from the fact that time and place are fairly,
but not utterly, meaningless concepts when it comes to heaven.

The parables are not primarily about the location of heaven
in time and space.Their importance
does not lie in that they are set in first century Palestine but that they are
stories for everywhere and for all time.

The parables tell us about God’s justice in heaven: a
different sort of justice to that we have become accustomed.Think here about the parable of the
labourers in the vineyard who get paid the same however long they work.But they also speak of judgement – a judgement
that puts things right and is less harsh than our judgement of ourselves.Think here about the parable of the wheat and
tares.

They tell of freedom from prejudicial assumptions and the
restoration of human relationships based on a shared humanity rather than
relationships based on a common nationality, race or even religion.Think here of the parable of the Good
Samaritan.

They tell of forgiveness and of healing of what has gone
before.Think here of the parables of
the lost sheep, lost coin and lost son (more commonly known as the parable of
the Prodigal Son).

They speak of celebration and sheer joy. Think again of the
parables of the lost sheep, lost coin and lost son but also the many stories of
banquets and feasts to which all are invited regardless of power, wealth or
status..

And if it is true that Jesus talks about heaven through his
parables might it not also be the case that he demonstrates heaven through his
miracles?The miracles are enacted parables.That is they are not done like magic tricks
to amaze or to demonstrates Jesus’ power.The can be viewed as foretastes of heaven: where storms are stilled,
where food and alcohol are plentiful, where bodies are healed and relationships
restored.

Take just one healing miracle – the healing of the blind man
in John’s gospel.Here the man is
healed of his physical blindness – but the story is also told to show how Jesus
has come to restore the sight, not just of a single person born physically
blind, but for all so that we might see in a new way.As Paul says in his letter to the Corinthian
church, ‘For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I
know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.’

I have not provided here an exhaustive list of the features
of heaven that we can discover from the parables and miracles but it’s a lot
better than I could do two weeks ago when my big concern was whether there was
time and space in heaven.I do think
there are a lot of unknowables about heaven and these are two of them.I argued two weeks ago that we cannot
conceive of a heaven without time and space and I still think that is
true.But that surely isn’t the end of
the matter.There is also the justice in
heaven, the freedom, the forgiveness, the healing, the celebration and joy to
consider.And last but certainly not
least there is the certainty of being with God in heaven – which is to return
to Charlie Bond’s parable and the collect for today which I’ll say again:

‘O God who has prepared for those who love you such good
things as pass our understanding: pour into our hearts such love toward you
that we, loving you above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed
all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Amen